Andrews, Clarence Leroy, 1862-1948

Alaska historian and U.S. Collector of Customs.

Writer and reindeer expert, serving the U.S. Bureau of Education and Reindeer Service, 1923-1929.

Clarence Leroy Andrews (1862-1948), a writer, photographer, U.S. Customs officer, Eskimo-rights advocate, and teacher, spent many years traveling in, photographing, and writing about Alaska.

Clarence Leroy Andrews was a writer and a reindeer expert who served in the U.S. Bureau of Education and Reindeer Service from 1923 to 1929.

Born in 1862 in Ohio, C.L. Andrews came to Alaska in 1897 with the Luigi expedition as a bearer (camp hand) to climb Mt. St. Elias on the Alaska-Canada border. He spent time in Sitka, in Skagway during the gold rush, in Eagle on the Yukon as a customs agent, 1904-1906, and in the Arctic, 1922-1929, working for the School and Reindeer Service. He wrote numerous articles and books on Alaska, and published and edited The Eskimo, a tabloid, from 1936-1947. Andrews moved to Eugene, OR and lived with his sister until his death at 85 in 1948.

Clarence Leroy Andrews (1862-1948) was born in Ashtabula County Ohio on October 19, 1862. He moved to Oregon with his family in 1864. After Andrews graduated from United Brethren College in 1882, he briefly worked as a postal clerk in Seattle, then established a homestead in eastern Oregon. From 1890 to 1897, he lived and worked in Seattle as a deputy in the King County auditor's office, and owned a small print shop. Andrews visited Alaska in 1890, and returned in 1897 as part of the Duke of Abruzzi's climbing expedition to Mount Elias on the Canadian-Alaska border. He remained in Alaska after the expedition's completion, working in the Customs Office at Sitka, Skagway, and Eagle for a decade. While there he studied photography, Alaskan history, and Russian. He came back to Seattle in 1909 as part of Alaska's contingent at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. He returned to Alaska in 1915 as a journalist and a photographer for the Alaska-Yukon magazine, and the Alaska Daily Empire. Between 1923 and 1929, he traveled throughout the Arctic as a surveyor for the School and Reindeer Service for the Alaska Bureau of Education. In his later years, Andrews wrote about Alaska and the Eskimos, and translated several Russian works about Alaska. He died in Oregon in 1948.

Clarence Leroy Andrews was born October 19, 1862 in Ohio. In 1864, Andrew's father set out moving his family west, choosing to sail via the Isthmus of Panama. Mr. Andrews died on the journey, but Mrs. Andrews continued on and settled the family in Oregon.

Andrews attended Philomath College in Oregon, and between 1883 and 1896 was engaged in various jobs, moving frequently along the West Coast. In 1896, he joined an expedition to climb Mt. St. Elias in Alaska. After this he began working at a series of posts at U. S. Customs Offices in Alaska, writing for newspapers during this time.

Between 1923 and 1929, he was an employee of the Interior Department Bureau of Education and Reindeer Service in Alaska. From then on, concern about the Eskimos and their reindeer herds occupied most of Andrew's time. He was especially concerned with corporations which exploited reindeer herds, and led a campaign in the 1930s to remove Carl Momen of Seattle from control of the reindeer industry.

Andrews wrote several books about Eskimos and Alaska, published The Eskimo magazine, and researched and translated several Russian works pertaining to Alaska. C. L. Andrews died in 1948.